Azernews.Az

By Gulgiz Dadashova

The European Union called on major European gas companies to establish a consortium and determine commercial interests, which may take some time.

Azerbaijan’s Energy Minister Natig Aliyev made the remark on May 12, adding that this proposal was voiced by Maros Sefcovic, the European Commission vice-president in charge of Europe’s energy agenda, at the quadripartite meeting in Turkmenistan on gas supplies to Europe.

"The Turkmen side expressed its interest in supplying its gas to Europe via the Trans-Caspian pipeline. Turkmenistan is ready to supply Europe with 30 billion cubic meters of gas, but there are a number of outstanding issues. It is not clear who will build the pipeline and how it will be financed,” Aliyev said.

Thus, the minister said, the parties [heads of energy departments of Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, Turkey and the EU] agreed to create a permanent working group.

“Soon, we will inform each other about the composition of our delegates to the group.

From Azerbaijan it will include employees of the energy ministry, Azerbaijan’s state energy company SOCAR, foreign ministry and possibly justice ministry,” Aliyev said.

Turkmenistan with its enormous natural gas reserves and Azerbaijan with its strong energy projects are key players of the Trans-Caspian pipeline project. The project envisaged laying down a 300 kilometers long gas pipeline running under the Caspian to the shores of Azerbaijan. Further fuel will be transported to Turkey which has common borders with European countries.

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